I'm not as active around these parts as I used to be, much to my chagrin, so I kind of feel like an interloper in this thread. But here goes anyway. I'm leaving NYC effective almost immediately. My stuff was loaded onto a moving van this morning and I'll be camped out with a friend in Brooklyn until Tuesday, at which time I will make my way to sunny southern cal. I wanted to say a huge thanks to all of the NYistas for welcoming a crazy Santiaguina by way of LA into your fair city. Super special love and adoration for, among other things, being the first internet people I met in real life, welcoming me into your homes for various game nights, x-mas parties, birthdays and co., trekking all the way out to the wilds of NJ to visit me before I became an official NYista, schlepping all the way to the upper east side (once I finally got there) for the Joyous Birth, to visit me and/or have coffee or a light snack, being my willing accomplices in BBQ sauce theft, introducing me to the Bliss store in Herald Square and just generally being really nice . . . and also foamy.

Hey all! I just thought I'd let you all know that I passed my masters degree, and in January of 2009 I will receive my shiny, $30,000 piece of paper. Yay!

I hope this isn't considered spam. I just thought I should pass along this warning about tainted Halloween candy for all the other buffista parents out there:

There is a new warning put out by the Canadian Food Inspection Agency....

Sherwood brand Pirate's Gold Milk Chocolate coins are being recalled due to the fact that they contain the industrial chemical melamine, a substance at the center of the tainted-milk controversy in China that has been implicated in the deaths of four infants and illness of 54,000 other babies.

These candies are sold at Costco, as well as many bulk and dollar stores. Please make sure to check your childrens Halloween candy and DO NOT LET THEM EAT THE PIRATE COINS (you know the ones wrapped in the shiny gold foil) and please let other parents know about this! They also recall White rabbit candies, so make sure they don’t eat those ones either.

"Product was distributed to the states of CA, GA, HI, IL, MN, NY, OR, TX, WA through wholesale distributors to retail stores."

As Quoted from the FDA website.

This is a personal request.

Upon looking at what I thought was my completed costume for Halloween, it's missing that certain something. I am a hermaphroditic cat, but a corset would be the thing that makes my outfit.

I don't suppose anyone out there has an under or overbust corset in a dark color that would fit 44.5 hip, 38 waist and 47 bust?

PVC or leather would be excellent, but any darkish colors on subdued patterns would be great. I would treat it like a baby, pay shipping costs and send back promptly after a dry-cleaning.

Profile addy is good, or leave me a message in Bitches.

Thanks so much for thinking!

Many many many thanks to aurelia and PixKristin for the books! I'm so deeply appreciative....Everyone who has helped my class get books rocks!

I've been mostly lurky lately, but I need that patentable Buffista ~ma. My mom just went into surgery for a coil embolization of a brain aneurism. We could really use some surgery going well and mom getting better fast ~ma. Thanks.

There's a powerful new No on Prop 8 ad narrated by Samuel L Jackson and until midnight tonight a $100,000 match. Please consider donating. Prop 8 is currently losing by a narrow margin in the polls.

Hey all...my Grandma McVay died early this morning. Please send some peace~ma towards my dad. He's taking it pretty hard.

Thank you, everyone, for the ~ma. My mom made it through surgery well, and is recuperating in CCU. It turns out that the machine that they used for my mom's surgery was one of 15 in the country when it was installed in February, and the only surgeon in Alaska who knows how to do the surgery left town the day after the surgery. Talk about timing! I'm so thankful right now.

I'm in Anchorage now. I've been away from the internet and access will be spotty over the next few days.

Ack! My boss told me today that they might have to lay me off! I have no fall-back so I need to get my resume together. Are there any Buffistas in the printing and/or graphics industry that could help me pull my resume together?

Profile addy is good.

job~ would be appreciated.